Pokemon: Project Reborn
by ProjectIceman
Summary: A new league has appeared, one where the boldest of trainers dare to go: The Reborn League. Shen, a 16 year old Pokemon trainer is heading there, excited for a difficult challenge compared to other regions. But there is more to this region than he first thought. A once great city crumbled - Air Pollution. Acidic Waters. Destroyed buildings. High crime rates. And more. (Dark Themes)
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**Hey there!**

**Oh boy. It's been a while hasn't it? The last time I wrote a chapter in VolTale was…about 2-3 years ago? Ha-ha. Big yikes lol**

**Well, I guess it was to be expected, considering the Undertale craze was getting to its lower point. Even for me, who was a part of the Undertale Fandom later than most others.**

**Well, now I will be doing a story on one of my favorite game titles: Pokémon. Though, this won't be based on the anime, nor the main franchise games. No. This will be based on a fangame that is very near and dear to my heart. One that brought my love for Pokémon back many years ago. One that is - while still in development - is very near completion. **

**Pokémon Reborn**

**I guess you can say this is an OC story…? I mean, it's based on a Pokémon game, so the MCs tend to be OCs, right? At the very least, this person will not look like or be named after the MC characters in the game. In fact, the MC will look like me (or the image of me that I commissioned for).**

**But enough about that. Let's get on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. Pokémon is owned by Game Freak and is Published by Nintendo. Pokémon Reborn is a fangame created by Amethyst Liddell (she does not own Pokémon either lol). The only thing I "own" is my OC, because he's basically a younger me with a different name.**

Chapter 1: Prologue

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"_**Mysterious Voice"**_

**Author Note/Detailed Info**

R-E-B-O-R-N

…

"Will call here. We got your boarding passes."

The ticket agent finally got all the passes printed out; **All Aboard Reborn City** printed at the top of them. "Another one for Reborn City, huh? They sure have been pushing that new league."

"Yep. Rumor has it that it's one of the toughest leagues around, and who am I to pass that challenge up," guy says, arms crossed with a smirk on his face. "You wouldn't happen to know anything more about it, would you?"

The agent scratches the back of his head and shrugs, "Hmm…not much…or at least probably nothing that you don't know already. Like I said, it's a newly made league, so much of the info on it doesn't reach a place like this. Although," he closes his eyes as he ponders on if he should continue. After a few seconds, he shrugs again, "from what I heard from the passing citizens and returning trainers that came from that region, the Pokémon are a bit different there. Though it's just a rumor. I haven't heard how or why they are different. You'll probably get that info from whoever the professor is from there."

The other guy nods while in a thinking pose while the agent finds what looks like the guys boarding pass, "Aha! I think I found it. Is this you?"

On the pass are two pictures, one a face photo and the other a bigger, upper-half picture. Both depict a black teenager with black hair, and dark brown eyes. The bigger one shows him wearing a dark blue zip-up hoodie designed after a certain Pokémon.

"Yep. That's me."

"Certainly looks like it." The agent nods and laughs, "I would be worried if it wasn't."

"Heh. Ditto."

"Alright, now I need your basic information," he puts the pass in a- 'Wait-Is that a typewriter? Those still exi-'

"So kid, what's your name?"

"A-," he scratches his head in thought and mild embarrassment, 'You know what? Questions for later. I should probably focus right now.' He looks back at the agent, "Shen. Shen Dawson."

"Shen…got it," he types his name on the typewriter, "and just to be safe, for Gender…"

"Male," Shen says with both eyebrows raised. 'Well, it is 20XX. Can't assume anymore, I guess. Especially in Customer Service.'

"Alright…give me one second. I can handle the rest of this." He finishes up typing the rest of the info on the ticket, train arrival, seat number, final destination, etc. "There all set!"

As he hands Shen the completed board pass, he looks around and whispers, "By the way, I forgot to mention" he looks around to make sure no one is listening, "Just between you, me and that ol' battered fence post, I heard Reborn City's kind of a dump."

"Wait. Seriously?" Shen was surprised to hear something like that. He's been through many regions prior to this, some better than others, but this is the first time someone descried a region like that. "It can't be that bad, can it?"

"From what I gathered, it's the reason why so many people left. Honestly, if it weren't for that league, I would question why so many trainers come to it in droves like I've been seeing. Sometimes I still do.

"Huh," Shen ponders in thought for a moment, then smiles determinedly, "Well, I'm the type of guy who has to see things for myself to believe. I guess I'll check that out."

"All power to ya kid." The agent shrugs with a smile and waves him off, "You best be off now. The train will be here any minute and it wouldn't do to miss it after all this."

"Got it." Shen pockets his boarding pass and grabs his backpack from the floor, "Take care!"

Just as Shen heads to the platform, the train arrived, conductors assisting the passengers. "Attention all passengers! Calling passengers for Train R750 to Grandview Station in Reborn City! Train R750 to Grandview Station in Reborn City!"

Shen boards on and starts looking around. The inside of the train car is different from the modern passenger trains. Red, wide cushioned seats big enough to be a loveseat facing across from one another **(A/N: like the disability seats for Amtrak)**, rustic style wooden walls, and wooden floors given it a classic look.

"5D…5D…there you are," Shen takes his seat and notices a few people around him, 'Possibly other trainers…maybe they will be future rivals…?' All of them are in their own seats as well, a white-haired dark-skinned looking guy, black haired guy, girl with long, blonde hair past her shoulders, blonde, soft mohawk haired person, and another person with white hair reaching their shoulders.

"Attention passengers," the intercom above starts above us, "we will now be disembarking on a non-stop trip to Grandview Station. Please stay seated momentarily as the conductors pass by to make sure that you have your boarding passes."

After the passes have been checked, the train starts to move to our destination.

"Alright," Shen says with a big relaxed grin, "here we go."

R-E-B-O-R-N

A few hours later, the train is going through the sands of the Tourmaline Desert. Shen observes the outside, noticing the numerous train locomotives and cars across the desert. 'That's…strange. Did they just dump old trains there from Reborn City?'

He looks back inside, glancing around when from the corner of his eye he notices a new person speaking with the black-haired guy across the aisle. Long, silver-white **(A/N: platinum?)** hair that reaches her back, small hazel eyes on her face, wearing a white sleeveless blouse and black pants. She seemed to be finishing up her conversation with the other guy, the "-see you when we get into the city" being a good indication. She then stands and walks to the seat across from Shen, them now being face-to-face.

She smiles as she begins to speak, "All right, hello there!" She holds out her hand, "I'm Ame and I am the manager of the Reborn League."

"Ahh" he says as he stands from his seat. "Nice to meet you. I am Shen" he then shakes her hand and they both sit down in their respective seats.

"So, Shen," she begins to say, "you were looking to sign up for the league, correct?" He nods his head. "Great! We're finally just getting things off the ground again. Truth is after the incident a few years ago, the whole region was almost completely abandoned…even by the Pokémon."

"Seriously?" Shen says as he gives her an incredulous look. 'The guy said that the citizens there were leaving that region, but the Pokémon as well…? Looks like there is more truth to the rumors than I thought.'

"Yeah," Ame says while scratching the back of her head with an awkward smile. "Uh, but! Don't let that worry you!"

Shen laughs awkwardly at that. 'Isn't this where I should be worried the most' he sweatdrops as he thinks this. 'If its as bad as I've been hearing, forget training a Pokémon, even finding one to catch in the wild will be difficult.'

"Ahem" she coughs as she is trying to get rid of the awkward mood. "It might not be an ideal place, but the gym leaders are like nothing you've ever seen before and I think you'll find Reborn to be a region like no other too!"

At this, Shen smirked as he trembled in excitement. This is exactly what he came for – a challenge unlike any other. After getting into the Pokémon League in many regions, being a top contender in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and even winning in Sinnoh** (the year before Tobias aka Mr. Darkrai and Latios, became champion)**, he felt things becoming too repetitive. Not the journey, being that all these regions were vastly different from one another and amazing in their own different ways, but the battles. That's why he left for Reborn, leaving his Pokémon to the professor. He wanted to start fresh, seeking that excitement that he had when he first started his journey.

"I'm coming back from some business out of town, so I figured I may as well introduce myself early and get a head start on everyone's registration" Ame says getting his attention. "With that out of the way, can I see your boarding ticket, please?"

"Of course." Shen pulls his ticket from his jacket pocket and hands it to her. She looks at the ticket and confirms the info is correct. "Alright, I got you down. We're almost to Grandview Station, so after we disembark, follow me to the Grand Hall. There I'll give you a starter Pokémon to really kick off your adventure in Reborn. Sound good?"

"Absolutely" Shen says and nods. 'It's almost time for my Reborn debut…it's funny really. In a way, I'm looking to be reborn as a trainer in this region. Interesting coincidence.'

"Good" she says looking to pull something out of her bag. "Then if you'll-"

Silence. She suddenly stops her words. Shen blinked at that. "Uhh…is something wrong…?" he asks, one eyebrow raised. She continues to stare at him, eyes wide in shock. Or at least that's what it looked like. But he realized a moment later that she wasn't staring at him, but behind him.

"Umm…" she continues looking in the same direction, a dark silhouette of a person floating in the seat behind Shen. He slowly looks back to see what had her staring like that, but right before the silhouette disappears, as if he was never there.

"…I don't like this…" He squints his eyes nervously, goosebumps on his arms. He definitely felt something behind him a just now. He looks around, keenly looking for who **or what** that was. Meanwhile, Ame was looking around for a completely different reason.

"Somethings now right…" she states in confusion, which gets Shen's attention. "Shouldn't we be decelerating already?"

"Eh?" His eyes widen at that statement. Before he could reply anything else, her eyes widen in shock and fear as she stands up and runs toward him, "Oh no – move!"

She immediately grabs him and pushes them out of the window. What immediately followed was an ear-splitting explosion, so loud it felt as if hard collision car crash occurred right next to his ears. He tightly shut his eyes and covered his ears in pain. Debris from wherever they were at fell on them. The Grandview Station – the final destination – collapsed on itself and was completely destroyed.

Silence followed once again, final bits of debris flying at random. Shen stays still lying on the ground in pain, barely conscious. 'W-What…' he thinks before he shuts his eyes.

He blacked out.

**Quite the prologue, huh. Though I added a bit of things here and there just to put a bit of me into the story, the majority of this is based on the fangame canon. I…don't think I did too bad all things considered, considering this is the second story I wrote on this site.**

**Was it good? Do I suck? Let me know what you think about my writing style. **

**By the way, if this has got your attention and you are thinking of playing the game, then you can find it on the RebornEvo website (just add dot com to that name, I know how FanFiction feels about URLs lol). It's currently in its final(?) development which will have the Elite, Champion, and post-game.**

**Not sure when I'll be posting another chapter. Since I am doing both this and YouTube, along with my real-life job, my schedule may not be...consistent. Heck my YouTube Channel videos haven't been consistent lol**

**However, I have even more of an interest in writing this than I did when I started VolTale. So please bear with me. And with that, I'll see you in the next Chapter.**

**Chapter 1: 1790 Words (Excluding the Beginning and End A/N)**

**ProjectIceman **


	2. Chapter 2: A Rough Start, A Rougher City

**Hah! Another One!**

**Welcome back to another chapter of Pokémon: Project Reborn. I honestly didn't expect to work on the next chapter so soon with how my schedule is, but I figured out a way to pull this off. **

**First, record a couple of videos for YouTube. Second, edit the videos. While the videos are being converted, continue writing the story. Finally, upload the videos while writing the story before going to my job. TLDR, I gotta multitask. Genius! XD**

**Jokes aside, I would like to thank those who Followed and Favorited this story as well as those who left a Review for me. With me being a new writer, I appreciate the feedback - hopefully positive in both praise and criticism lol. I was pondering on whether to respond to people via PM or in the actual story, and (unless there is some rule on the FF site), I decided to put my responses to reviews here:**

**JAwesone1One (Twitter) – Appreciate it man…and well, hope you didn't have to wait too long XD**

**Silver (Guest) – Thank you very much for the feedback. Really glad to see you find it that way. With how extensive the game is (especially with it being dialogue heavy), the story nearly writes itself lol**

**With that out of the way, let's get on with the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Guys. I'm broke. Of course I don't own Pokémon (nor it's fangame siblings) XD**

Chapter 2: A Rough Start, A Rougher City

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"_**Mysterious/Unknown Voice"**_

**Author Note/Detailed Info**

R-E-B-O-R-N

Darkness.

A perpetual darkness surrounded Shen. 'W-what's going on…? Why is it so dark…?' He tried to move but felt stiffness in his limbs. He started to panic, 'Why can't I move? Why is it so dark?! I'm not de- oh my eyes are closed.'

…

If he could move, he would've slapped his forehead at his stupidity. He settled for a mental one.

"_**-y!"**_

'…did I just hear something? Or is my mind playing tricks on m-ow.' His body still felt stiff, but his head was pounding intensely, making even those idle thoughts hurt. 'Jeez- ow, I feel like a Snorlax used Body Slam on my head- gah!' But he continued nonetheless, if only to keep his bearings on his situation. Besides, feeling pain meant that you were still alive, right?

"_**-y, are you okay!?"**_

'Okay I definitely heard it that time' he managed to think, 'and oh, no pain this time. Good for me.' Though they were still stiff, he was managing to move his extremities a bit. Baby steps.

"_**Wake up!"**_

'Wait…that voice sounds familiar…' he thought as he finally was able to open his eyes, albeit slowly. The light blinded his vision momentarily, his vision clears as he finally opens his eyes. He finally recognizes the person who was calling out to him.

"Ame…?"

"Yeah…thank goodness you're alive. You were out for a while there" she said as she moved to give Shen some space. He moved his arms and legs to rid of any stiffness in the joints before slowly getting up on his feet, moved his head to rid of stiff neck pains, and rubbed his eyes to rid of the black spots in his vision. When he looked around, what he saw was…well…BAD.

The first thing he noticed was that the closest building nearby was smoking and looked like it collapsed on itself…as if it was recently set for demolition. And considering what they just went through, that may not be too far off. A nearby broken sign reads **-randv- Stati-**, likely partially destroyed by whatever happened when the train hit.

Police officers were nearby, some discussing with themselves on what exactly happened and others observing the station, most likely looking for any clues – miniscule though they might be. It looks to be difficult for them, considering that many of the entryways to the station look to be blocked by debris.

"The train exploded as soon as we got to the station" Ame started saying and Shen was shocked at hearing that. "The train…exploded? I thought this was caused by the train crashing into the station…but it exploded?"

"I would see why you would think something like that. But no, it was an explosion" she stated while looking at the destroyed station, "I managed to see it for a fraction of a moment when we made our escape from there." She pondered to herself, momentarily in thought before shaking her head. "Though a runaway train would've caused some extensive damage, it wouldn't have destroyed the station to this extent."

"I—" her voice hitched for a moment which made Shen look at her. She was looking downwards, her hair covering most of her face which made it difficult to see her facial expression. But if he were to hazard a guess, he would assume that she was pretty shaken up by this whole situation. 'For good reason…we could've died there…'

She took a deep breath before continuing, "I'm just glad we could get us out of there in time, but everyone else—" she paused. Shen shut his eyes at that. They were most likely the only survivors from this. He shuddered, thinking that if Ame was sitting anywhere else, if she was even an inch away…

She shook her head and took a deep, stressful sigh. "There's no use thinking about that now…why did this have to happen?" She reopened her eyes - taking a stressed thinking pose – as she tried to gather her thoughts on this situation. "Who would even- "

"**Hihi!"**

"…Julia." After saying that, Ame took on a look of…exasperation? Frustration? Contained anger? It was hard to tell for Shen. The person, most likely the Julia in question, was energetically (maybe a little too energetically) walking towards us. She was a girl with vibrant green hair in the style of a ponytail. She wore what looked like a yellow jacket and a short, orange skirt, long orange socks, and yellow shoes.

"Julia, what did you do?" Ame asked with an accusatory glare. 'Uhh. Why would Ame think she was responsible for this…?' Shen thought with slight worry, a sweat drop on his face. 'And the way she said that made it sound like this is a normal occurrence with her.'

"Whaaaaaaaat? I didn't do anything!" Julia denies as she animatedly waves her hands. "I was at the gym-gym and then suddenly, BOOM, so I came running. "

"Pfft!" The two girls look his way while Shen looks away and tries to stifle his laughter, "Uhh, no worries! Don't worry about me, heheh! Please, continue" he says with a big grin. 'Gym-gym? Ha. That's so adorable. *chuckle*'

"Anyways Ame, you know if things are exploding, I gotta be there to see it! It's so cool!" Julia exclaims as she jumps up in excitement as if she was a firework herself.

"Uh huh." Ame answers with the most deadpan of deadpanned faces.

And at that Shen couldn't hold it. He laughed. Loudly. "Haahahahaa! I'm sorry! But the interaction between you two is hilarious! Pure comedy!" Shen replied while widely smiling and wiping a tear from his eyes. "I needed a good laugh. All this doom and gloom was getting to be a bit much for me. So thanks for that."

"Hey, I like this guy" Julia states while Ame just rolls her eyes, trying to hold her own smile down…and failing miserably. "Well, now that we're done with this comedy routine," Ame speaks while rolling her hands as if saying "moving on", "let's get back to the task at hand." To that Shen shrugged while smirking and Julia gave a big thumbs up.

She looks back at the now destroyed station, "Based on the timing, this must have been a deliberate attack. Somebody rigged the train to destroy Grandview Station."

Julia looked at the station, hand across her forehead surveying the damage that was done to it. "And from the looks of things, they did a pretty good job!"

"Yeah. A little too good…" Shen answered with a contemplative look, "I'd rather they didn't try to do such a good job to our expense."

"Agreed…" Ame replied with a small sigh, "well, this isn't the time to be admiring their work. Whoever was behind this could still be monitoring us from nearby…I'll have the perimeter locked down. There's a chance we could catch the perpetrator before they get away."

She nodded her head, getting ready to move when she looked back at Shen. "Sorry Shen, but I have to go. Catch up with me later. Until then…hmm…yes, there should be another trainer who you can meet to show you around." She points down the road, "Find her in front of the Grand Hall. It's just down this road; you can't miss it."

Shen nodded, understanding that this situation must take priority. "Got it. I'll keep my eye out for her then."

"Good. And uh, don't worry about all of this" she spoke with a slightly embarrassed face before sighing and making a very stern face. "I'll handle it."

She takes off, going somewhere to get a handle on this situation. Shen could feel the intensity coming off her as she disappears from his sights. He lets out a low whistle, "Oh boy. Whoever it was that set up this entire situation, I don't envy them one bit."

Julia nods her head enthusiastically as she stares at where Ame went, "Yup! Ame can get pre-tty intense at times." She then looks back at Shen with a big, energetic smile. "So your name is Shen, right? I'm Julia, captain of cheer and pep, and all things bubbly and bright!"

'An apt title' Shen thought with a big grin of his own as she continues. "Oh, Pop-Quiz! Are you gonna take on the Reborn League?"

"Of course."

"Correct!"

'Wait- what?'

"Then I will be seeing you really soon," she continues to speak as she jumps excitedly, "because I'm also the Electric Gym Leader! I'll be looking forward to your challenge, so go on, get to the Grand Hall already!"

Shen scratched his head and agreed with her, nodding his head. "Alright, I look forward to it! I'll see ya later." He then walks off towards the road that Ame pointed him to. 'Alright, Grand Hall, here we come.'

R-E-B-O-R-N

A bit of walking and observing his surroundings made Shen really reflect on what was happening in this city. The city looked like it has seen better days. The houses that he could see were bad, the skies looked overcast with smoke pollution, and the bay…the water in the bay was a greyish brown. 'It's even worse than that ticket agent thought,' Shen contemplates as he continues down the street.

The people around are also in pretty rough shape; many people either trying to get by with what they have day-by-day, or just standing around in depression. The incident at Grandview Station only made it worse for some of those people:

"Excuse me? Were you on that train for Grandview Station?"A random person asked as Shen was passing by. His eyes looked…dead. There were obvious signs that he was recently crying, but now, he looked like he was just…done."

"Yeah…"

"…so was my fiancée…"

At that, Shen's heart ached in pain. He didn't know how to respond to that, so he just said "I'm…I'm sorry…"

This was a painful situation, not only for those who were caught in the explosion, but for those left behind that must live with this pain…

The police officers have blockaded the pathways to the northern part of the city, most likely to keep the perpetrator from escaping. 'Looks like Ame is already taking measures to catch this SOB. Good. Hope they manage to catch whoever is responsible for that.'

Shen continues to mull over about all the things going on in this city, 'Still. Even if they catch the guy, there is still the underlying problem that this city is…shitty. And it seems like no one is taking measures to fix it…or maybe they can't? I will admit that if what I've seen so far is the same for the rest of the city I haven't seen, then a few Pokédollars isn't going to cut it.'

He stops walking as he arrives at what he believes is the Grand Hall. Few floors of steps leading to a building that had a dome roof. Most of it was covered in dark grey color, but it also had four other colors lining its door and outer edges: blue, red, green, and a royal looking purple – most likely amethyst. In a city that looks like it does, this building is very eye-opening. "'You can't miss it' is right…this place looks amazing!"

In front of the building is a girl, black hair in the style of a long ponytail, an ahoge hair in front of her face. She wore what looked like a black, open bottomed kimono under a beautiful, grey garb that had two Ying-Yang symbols on it, black pants, and black shoes.

"Hey, are you Shen?" the girl asked as he finished climbing up the stairs.

"Yes I am," he nods as he stands in front of her. "Ame told me that someone would help me once I reached the Grand Hall. Would that be you?"

"Yes, that's me. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Victoria. It's a pleasure to meet you, but is everything okay? I heard something happened at the station…"

"Nice to meet you too." he shook her hand as he continued, "I'm…fine for the most part. I've seen better days, but I'll live. Heh. As for what happened at the station, well, it's a long story. One that Ame would probably be better to give than me."

"Hmm. I see. I'll see if she can bring me up to speed later. For now," she points towards the Grand Hall, "Ame asked for me to help you with the registration process. Don't worry. It shouldn't take too long. Let's go inside." 

**And I think I will end it off right there. This part was even more dialogue heavy than I was intending it to be, but the game itself was dialogue heavy…so I honestly should have seen this coming lol**

**We finally reached the Grand Hall! Here we will finally get our first Pokémon…and I don't know which one it will be. The fact that all the starters from Gen 1 to 7 are there makes it difficult for me to choose myself.**

**Honestly, I am tempted to put up a poll to see if any viewers have any suggestions on that, even though only a few have read my story so far lol. Maybe I will go on a few different platforms (Twitter, RebornEvo, etc.) and calculate the total on all of them. We'll see…**

**After that is the all well-known first Pokémon battle…which will be interesting to write, since it will be the first time, I've ever written a battle scene. Wonder how that will turn out.**

**As always, criticism is appreciated, especially when it is positive. I've said this before, but I am new when it comes to writing, so things may be a bit rough. I'll try to improve as this story continues.**

**Once again, thanks to all the people that read, followed, favorited, and reviewed so far. I will see you in Chapter 3.**

**Chapter 2: 2082 Words**

**ProjectIceman**


End file.
